Elmhurst was home to Nicole Laliberte from the time she was 6 years old until age 16. During those years, she attended Hawthorne, Sandburg and York High School. “Growing up I had neighborhood friends with fond memories of building tree forts and generally getting dirty,” she says. But by 16, Laliberte left home after being accepted to an early college admission program at Simon’s Rock College in western Massachussetts. Over the next two decades, Laliberte would go on to travel all over the world, living, learning and teaching in Guatemala, South America, Turkey and north, east and south …
On a spring morning in her Elmhurst home, Christine Shollenberger put the finishing touches on a memory quilt she made for Dana Kircher. Kircher and Shollenberger live in the same neighborhood, but they didn’t know each other until Kircher put a bid on—and won—a custom memory quilt by Shollenberger at the Jackson PTA Carnival in February. “My husband’s father and step-mother live in Albuquerque,” Kircher said. “Every year for 20 years or so they have sent us a Balloon Fiesta T-shirt. It started with my husband, then when I entered the picture, they started sending them to me. And now, we have…
In many ways, John Davis is an all-around Elmhurst kind of guy. He was born and raised here, graduated from York High School, and spent 15 years as a reporter, then editor, for the Elmhurst Press. Later, he changed professions and became a stock broker and financial planner. Since 1992, he’s been running his own business, Mentor Capital, in—you guessed it—Elmhurst. Mentor is a fee-only wealth management firm that deals with investments, income tax planning, estate planning and risk management. But with his roots firmly planted in Elmhurst soil, Davis finds time to be highly involved in the …
There’s that old joke that asks, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” Answer: Practice, practice, practice. Even Carnegie Hall’s own Web site says that getting to the prestigious Midtown Manhattan concert hall could be as simple as taking the E Train to Seventh Avenue, or by “a lifetime of practice.” Just ask Elmhurst resident Jeff Panko, who recently returned from his trip to Carnegie Hall after accompanying San Francisco-based soprano Natalie Mann in her performance of Songs of Love and Hope on Feb. 20. And if opportunities like this come but once in a lifetime, then Panko’s life is indeed …
Carol Mola already knows she’ll be crying on Nov. 28. That’s when she’ll have to take Robbie, her floppy eared, sweet-faced, easygoing yellow lab, back to the Leader Dog campus in Rochester Hills, Mich., to continue his training to assist the blind. For over a decade, Mola and her husband, William, have trained leader dogs, fostering them in their home for the first 12 months of training. “I’ll hate giving him up,” says Mola from her Elmhurst home. “Some people are better at it than others. I cry and cry. My kids know. They say, ‘OK, it’s a week before. Here we go.' ” But for now, Mola, a …
Elmhurst resident Jenny Riddle's shows can make her audience members cry, but that's not a bad thing. "They have tears in their eyes because they remember a particular song or they remember meeting a celebrity, and they love to share that," says Riddle, who channels the voices, spirit and stories of extraordinary women from the past and present, such as Barbara Walters, Julie Andrews, former first ladies and Emily Post. Combining her love of books and her love of performing, Riddle has enjoyed connecting with audiences during the last 10 years of her Jenny Riddle: In Character book …
